Weak Gun Laws & High Levels of Gun Violence Go Together

Today, our colleagues at the Center for American Progress put out an important new study examining the relationship between a state’s gun laws and its rate of gun violence. Unsurprisingly, the states with the weakest gun laws tend to also be the states with the highest rates of gun violence.

As both common sense and hard data indicate, 8 of these 10 states are among the 25 states with the weakest gun laws. Indeed, the 10 states with the weakest gun laws have more than double the rate of gun violence of the 10 states with the strongest gun laws.

On the flipside, states with strong guns have low levels of gun violence. The five states with the lowest levels of gun violence — New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Connecticut — are all among the ten states with the strongest gun laws.

To find out exactly where your state’s gun laws rank and where it ranks in terms of gun violence, please click HERE.

BOTTOM LINE: Gun violence prevention laws matter and they work. It’s time for Congress to act on strong gun violence prevention laws — especially universal background checks — so all Americans can be protected, no matter which state they live in.